PLANS TO REVAMP PRISON FARMS AND INDUSTRIES TAKING SHAPE

By Pili Chimerah

The State Department for Correctional Services through the Kenya Prisons Service is working towards revamping, mechanizing and modernizing farm and Prison industries.

During the last financial year, the prison farms generated revenue amounting to 154,727,085 shillings while industries generated 159,979,097 shillings across the different stations in the country, with the proceeds invested in a revolving fund.

For the farms, the department is working towards achieving enough food production for self-sufficiency and for sale whenever there is a surplus.

The productions in the different prison farms include livestock and fish rearing, maize, rice, potato seed production, and afforestation where different types of trees are planted including fruit trees.

For the industries, 5,000 inmates are being equipped with skills in carpentry, masonry, baking, and beadwork among others, the products are displayed in different showrooms across the country which are open to the public to purchase. 

Speaking during a meeting with Prison farms and industries managers at the Prisons Staff Training College, Correctional Services Principal Secretary Dr Salome Beacco lauded farm managers on working towards contributing to the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.

"You are representatives of the Government’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda and we are achieving it through two of its pillars, that is food production and manufacturing,” the PS underscored.

She said the department is aiming at improving and innovating the workshops besides acquiring more equipment to curb the challenges currently affecting farms and industries for increased production.

Commissioner General of Prisons Patrick Aranduh, who had accompanied the PS, congratulated the officers on their efforts in managing the prison farms and industries even as he urged them to put in more effort.

Photo by Patrick Ambani